Roland MC-4: The 1981 Music Computer
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- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- A look at the Roland MicroComposer / MC-4 from 1981.
In 1977 Roland introduced the first ever microprocessor controlled digital sequencer, which was the MC-8 designed by Ralph Dyck. The MC-4 was the successor and was one of Roland's few CV/Gate digital sequencers before they moved over to MIDI shortly after.
Both when it was new and many years after it was seemingly obsolete, numerous artists swore by it and they're now sought after. In the video we explore why.
With thanks to Pea Hicks for the MC-8 footage and images.
0:00 Intro Jam
0:41 Origin of the MC series
2:54 Interlude
3:31 Demonstration of how it works
10:20 The end result
10:47 Summary of the experience
12:09 Others ways to program
13:16 Experiments & explorations
19:03 MC-4b etc
19:39 Who used it, when and why?
Links:
MC-8 History: rolandmc8.wordpress.com/
Vince Clarke MC-4: www.muzines.co.uk/articles/vin...
YMO MC-4: • Yellow Magic Orchestra...
Chris Carter: www.soundonsound.com/reviews/...
Landscape MC-4: www.muzines.co.uk/articles/bur...
Thomas Dolby MC-4: fb.watch/beBq4hp7W5/
Hard Corps MC-4: • HARD CORPS - Je Suis P...
Toto MC-4: www.musicradar.com/news/toto-...
AFX (Richard D James) MC-4: • AFX - Analord 1 (w. Bo...
Roland's latest MC units:
www.roland.com/uk/products/mc...
www.roland.com/uk/products/mc...
🎶 Altogether now 🎶
I got this music box straight from Japan,
I make them groove from Berlin to Milan,
I tap the numbers in, the music does come out,
They shake their booties of this there is no doubt. Jah!
I've got my step times, my cvs and gates,
Those sexy numbers make the crowd reciprocate,
A little trick is a touch of mpx,
The guys get grooving as do the fairer sex, Jah!
So while you're waiting for the music calculations,
Precise values with specific calibration,
Press my buttons baby, move a little closer,
I'll plug you in to my MicroComposer!
😂
Ballswerk - the slightly more daring operator with a pocket calculator
I love this channel. No doubt one of the best on UA-cam. Highly Creative, Nostalgic. Alex is boss!
That was quite a sudden step up from twinkle twinkle 🤣
catchy ;)
Man. That piece with vocals is absolute fire. “I’ll plug you in to my microcomposer” did it.
Ooh ja!
😎
@@AlexBallMusic We need a full length track of that song! I had to rewind the video and absorb that piece several times!
"I might have got a little bit carried away there"
And the crowd says: Not enough! MORE!
You a cornball.
I really love that you talk to the camera comfortably and don't edit out every microsecond between your words, like so many UA-cam people do. Great video as always!
Yes I really appreciate that!
Thanks! That's nice to know.
It's always a challenge to hit the balance of info and demo and editing the bejesus out of your dialogue is one thing I see a lot, but I agree that it's not the ideal solution. Good to know you prefer the more natural approach.
Yeah I hate when UA-camrs do that. They sound like robots
100% agree. Its a pleasure watching all of Alex's video because of the natural talking and editing.
Yes Mr Ball is a great well educated Narrator.
Wow the amount of patience they had to have to program this back then. I hate using computers now because i feel it destroys my creativity, but this is next level brain melting. Could not imagine actually using this to make actual music.
When you're a teenager, time is not an issue, so these kind of things were a lot of fun :3
I remember in the 80s, they said that synthesisers made having hits easy just by playing one key the synth did it all. After watching this video and after all those inputs my brain is hurting. I have a massive respect to the people who made great music using this technology. We have it so easy now by comparison.
yes! the amount of drugs one would have to do to sit in the studio for 12 hours programming an 8 bar pattern lol-- and then being told "That music is crap and not real music" by Rockers...lol
@@andyanderson6455 LOL, that comment made me laugh. Doing loads of drugs and sitting in front of a pile of synthesizers is still a hobby for some 😝
Alex, thanks for mentioning (and purchasing!) my MC-4 Hack software. I do hope you give it a try, greatly simplifies the programming experience.... Hopefully you saw on my site the fun examples I included there of people having the MC-4 play some super complex tracks that no human would have ever had the patience to program! ;-)
Love vacuum florescent displays! I just repaired and ESQ-1 display board which is also a VFD, such a cool look and so 80s.
AFX said it was like making tracks on a vintage taxi meter. I know why
haven't seen this vid now but I love your quality/quantity ratio Alex :)
Very cool and simultaneously a TREMENDOUS pain in the ass. I absolutely love the Roland 100m sound.
Yep, amazing and infuriating.
100m - always delivers.
So _that’s_ what Yello named the song after!
Looks like a lot of fun and tedium at the same time.
INSANE pain in the ass... XD
I use the MC-4 and the MC-8. Typically, I have to have the song fully written and then chart it all out before programming. It actually doesn't take long at all with good pre-planning and experience with either machine. Also, there is the program called MC-4 Hack which lets you easily program the MC4 and convert MIDI to MC4 sequences via PC/Mac. Makes life much easier with the MC4.
Fun fact - if you can track down a copy of Erasure's "The Tank, The Swan, and The Balloon" - which is a recording of one of their concerts from the Chorus album tour - you can occasionally see Vince fiddling with the MC4 as he switches cassettes for various sets. Crazy ambitious doing a live show entirely on such a device with only other CV/Gate synths - many of which didn't even have memory so he'd have to adjust patches by hand while Andy distracted the crowd by... well by being Andy 🤣
Mad lads! Love it.
Wow i wasn't the hugest Erasure fan, but that performance is incredible. ^thanks!
@@AlexBallMusic they had to distract the audience when Vince loaded the next song from tape
Today he just uses a laptop. 😑
Fun Fact - anyone who prefaces a comment with 'fun fact' is a c**t. Apart from that good info I will look at that recording if I can find it.
Not only were musicians in the 80s making groundbreaking electronic music but they also must have had the patience of saints!
The two probably played into each other. Patience, planning, an open mind, willingness to experiment.
But yeah, there must have been some long days tapping away on these things.
@@AlexBallMusic They may well have got a studio monkey to do all the tedious input from a similar sheet that you had, I know if I was a producer I'd get the tea boy to do all that ;)
The same is true ever since the start of recorded music. And this is why the ST was such a big deal.
@@AlexBallMusic For me, when I was young, I had the time to dig into something technically and technologically amazing, not unlike this.
No distractions!
that's why the music sounded a lot better instead of using chord progression packs
I don't know how you get such modern sounding/forward thinking experimental music out of equipment so ancient, but god if it isn't beautiful.
Also mad respect to all the nerds who sat there typing values into this thing all day to make cool music, your demonstrations on how to use it are surprisingly entertaining.
Torturous inputting all those steps, but it sounds TIGHT! That delayed arpeggio track was gorgeous. What a beautiful object as well.
I have always been fascinated by the MC4, Analord is perhaps one of my favourite collections of AFXs work and I think the use of the MC4 was so important in the sound he got from those tracks. Great vid!
Yes, you can totally hear it when you know what the MC-4 is. Amazing recording.
Respect to this! Class the Analord series by Aphex
@@samjones4570 the analord series has to be one of my favourite of rdj's work, i find it incredible how emotion can be squeezed out of roland machines from the 80s and 90s. Pure genius. written whilst listening to i'm self employed.
I am simply amazed that you have mastered how to use the MC-4. I thought that was only possible for older lads (55+) who HAD TO grow up with this device. I mean: who would want to learn step sequencers and 10-key pads when there are so many modern DAWs? This is great work that deserves admiration.
Thanks. I've been intrigued by this one for a couple of years so it was an absolute pleasure.
I do remember Acorn and BBC computers and also running things from DOS, so it's not a million miles away from my first encounters with computers. Feels somewhat familiar.
@@AlexBallMusic
Quite the same situation here. My first sequencer was Roland's very first PC based sequencer: MPU-401 and its companion software MCP-PC8 (step input) / MRC-PC8 (real time).
The MCP-PC8 was in fact a Micro Composer for PC (as the name suggests), and had a programming interface similar to that of the MC-4; the length of one bar is represented as 120. The 10-key pad is your main input device, but you could also specify the note with a MIDI keyboard (only JX-3P or JUNO-106 were available at that time) . The biggest difference was that you could see 20 notes all at once, and save data on a 320K 5.25" floppy disk. How cool is that ?
This feels similar to MC-4, so although I wasn't old enough to have used MC-4 in its heyday, I can still understand how it is programmed.
(BTW, MCP-PC8 may not have been so widely available; I googled the internet but there is very little information about them even on Japanese sites. PC based sequencers were new and still a niche, and it was still years before the internet)
it's awesome to see the great-great grandfather of my MC505 but damn... It looks/feels like a Tracker without a screen. Much respect for those who have been able to write magic on devices like these!
It also looks like an awesome gateway into modular.
Incredible that devices like this didn't convince everyone to just forget about electronic music as a colossal nightmare and not worth it lol
My first sequencer was a Roland MC50 MkII, and it was like painting your hallway from outside, through your letterbox. Having said that, it did force a certain way of working that I sort of miss.
Believe me, I'll take the MC-50 mkII over the MC-4, we use one of those in my former band in the 80'S and we didn't have any trouble and having floppy disk was a plus, loading time not so much.
Fun to use for a different approach. A touch slower than my modern DAW, but just a touch. 😉
Painting your hallway from the outside through the letterbox, I love that metaphor so much.
I still use a Roland W30 for sequencing and have use various MC series sequencers in the past (MC-202, MC-300, MC-50). You can still see their origins in the MC-8 and MC-4 when you go into step entry via the micro editing mode. A former band member described a lot of my composing as more like computer programming as he watched me hammer away on the buttons!
The 50 was my first as well and it almost put me off sequencing
Iconic bit of kit! I will never let my MC4B go
And it looks simply stunning as well. A very timeless design, really.
When the kick/bass came in for the beat at 15:25, I lost it. That was tremendous. Great video. Thank you for showing how this was programmed in a clear fashion!
Ridiculous lengths noted and appreciated Alex. Good reminder of how lucky we are with today's tools. nice :)
Explains why so many accountants became musicians. /s
Seriously though, it's amazing how convenient having piano roll and midi output is.
i need one or two of these in my life.... i could geek out for days with them...
Great video. Reminded me of inputting the same gate values on my MC-202 back in the day. Thank heavens for DAWs. What a time consuming pain, but I guess the end result was eventually worth it.
Hopefully I can try the 202 at some point. I've still never used one.
WOW, totally WOW, loved that little jam you did at the beginning - that's a sound I'd love to create but somehow my stuff never comes out quite how I planned. Amazing machine, love the data entry, it's a bit like programming an Altair 8800 in it's level of bonkersness. Still groovin' to "Micro Composer"........ Awesome video Alex.
Cheers. Yes, a totally different paradigm. Great fun to explore.
Altair 8800 - thanks for the tip. Never heard of it.
@@AlexBallMusic Ah, the Altair 8800 wasn't a synth, but it was more or less the genesis of personal computers - in it's most basic form, it was programmed in binary using a set of switches on the front panel and any information coming out of the computer was displayed on a series of LED's on the front panel. The method of programming was incredibly slow but kind of intoxicating to do. Possibly the biggest claim to fame was that Paul Allen and Bill Gates developed BASIC for the Altair and then went on to form a little company called Microsoft......
My former band mate had a MC-4b and he was rediculously fast at the controls. That was the central of the setup and we made an entire mini album with that in the mid 90's. Retro before retro was cool. ;)
Loved the track too... JAAA!!!
Thank you for referencing Tomita, the single biggest influence for me. What he did with synths was astonishing ,and still is. I recommend Bermuda Triangle as a headphones on, lights out and listen experience, So many times I did this.
Alex Ball, the 'Techmoan' of electronic music! This is a truly amazing journey back in time, before midi, before you could just play a keyboard and record it to a machine! Amazing seeing you have to programme every note value, length and basically outputing analog voltages. On the other hand that is a gorgeously built piece of equipment - they just don't make modern gear like they did back in the day. Wood, metal, proper keyswitches, clean and logical panel layout, love it! I'm sure someone could recreate the MC4 now with an Arduino - though you might need some D/A converters. Brilliant videos Alex, no idea how you find this stuff!
I truly respect you. I think you are doing all of us a huge favor showing us these things. Well done.
Stopped in for the vintage gear, stayed for the MicroComposer song! That was amazing! Thank you.
Absolutely loved this episode! Thanks for all the history and brilliant work.
That song was AWESOME! Amazing job and and a superb delivery.
Thank you!
Killer vid man. I ready that Aphex Twin used this machine on Analord and had to search around on UA-cam about it and found your video. Man that MC4 has that genuine AFX vibe for sure. So cool. Thanks for the great video!
thank for taking the time and doing that for us. delightful!
Thanks for watching!
What an absolute amazing time for synthesis, 1980s
Great video man! Been waiting for someone to make a nice informative video about this piece of kit! Cheers!!
Love this stuff...all 5 of us.
Haha. Yeah, this is a niche one, but I want to do it. 🍻
Wow, I had no Idea that this was the sequencer on literally all of my favorite albums. Truly answers a lot of questions I had. Thanks for the video.
Ah! Great to have been able to shed some light on that then. Thanks for letting me know.
OMG! You're the best Mr. Alex!
I love your videos SO much! I've watched many of them multiple times even. My favorite is the Roland Documentary, being a huge Roland fan.
The "little" jams you do are killer!! "I got this music box straight from Japan"? My head was instantly rocking!! 🔥
Thank you for all you give us!
Arguably one of the best synth channels once again delivers.
I've been a broken record about how Vince Clarke used this to sequence all of the songs on Erasure's Chorus. Waiting for the Day. Some amazing grooves and work arounds for chords just using this an analog gear.
Thanks for this awesome document. Love the song in the beginning btw!
that was such a great video
Thank you Alex !!
Somehow I always love to see you programming, especially on old esoteric devices
Wow that last track at 18:00 sounds absolutely beautiful. Def sounds like something I would listen to on a daily basis.
Super video and great to hear a real world application of such “Primitive “ tech.
We certainly have it it easy with our choices for hardware and software sequencers today,
I always enjoy your fab videos,and I have gleaned both knowledge and Inspiration from your channel.
Thanks Alex:)
This thing is beautiful. A textbook example of the industrial design of it's day, aimed at a higher end music market. A bridge between academia and the well-heeled outsider creative underground clique's hive mind of the day.
As an aside, this provides an amazing bit of insight into why the TB-303 sequencer is the way it is AND the physical design choices aimed at the mainstream consumer musician market of it's day.
Oh, using TTLS was brilliant.
13:20 is were the real action starts.
10/10, will absolutely be humming that "micro composer"-jam for the next few weeks!
I would never have the patience needed for this. :) Very interesting video with some great musical examples. Thank you.
Niche fun. 🙃
Absolutely fascinating! Thanks Alex!
Alex you never fail to educate and entertain me. brilliant as usual *****
Thank you sir!
The second best 23 minutes of the week. Thank you!
Thanks!
love ur channel man. not only do we get history 10/10 presontation. we get to see a dope musician get busy with it
Great video, thanks! I like the aesthetic of this machine, looks classy.
Hi Alex! Don't know if somebody said it first in the comments but if you want to input the same value repeatedly you can do it by simply pressing Enter again and again, no need to type the complete numeric value. This of course saves you a hell of a lot of time.
I made all the mistakes going in this video, I've now learned all the shortcuts, including that one! Yep.
Dang…now that’s some great “old school computer music.” And literally every artist you named I’m a big fan of…literally, every single artist…🤯
There is a lovely softness to the tones.
Great video. Of course being over 50 this really appeals to me.
Me too!
Analogue loveliness.
@@AlexBallMusic yeah to use the technical term. Lol
Watching the workflow back then makes me appreciate this music era much more.
Excellent overview Alex. You've inspired me to get mine fixed.
Do it! I bought this one in the end btw, so we're MC-4 buddies now.
When asked about using the MC-4 on Analord, Richard D. James said it was like making music with a parking meter, and watching this video I can see why.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Makes me feel very happy to have my MPC :) Also, thanks for the explanation on Toto’s Rosanna! I always wondered how a person could have played that!
Fantastic video Alex! Top work all the way. You and the Ronalds make some gorgeous sounds! I thought the maj7 arpeggio thing had a very “Plantasia” vibe!
Fantastic video. And the MC4 groove song was absolutely marvelous. The lovechild of Devo & Prince. Genius 🎹🖖
Great video again! I loved your mini-song "Micro composer". Super cool!
Thank you! Those lyrics needed to happen. 🙂
@@AlexBallMusic Loved it! Maybe one day you can make a full song of it, would be very cool!
Genuinely had me grooving with that vocal mix!
Loved it. Great video, as always.
My initial reaction after seeing you enter the data was that 'I don't believe people could make music this way', and I kinda expected this video to be about a weird thing that existed somewhere out there, but no one really used. But as the video unfolded I realized how revolutionary it actually was, and the list of artist who used it was way longer than I expected. I feel a bit more educated today, so thank you for that! Also - The song at the 16:25 caught me by surprise :D Great stuff!
More unbelievable is that they made excellent music with that technology compare to today's garbage with way more advance stuff.
There's no explanation for that!
Thank you. I'm glad it surprised you in a good way.
I've been dying to get hold of one to learn all about it. One of my favourite videos to do, glad some folk enjoyed it.
Great video ! Really interested in these oblique workflows
Awesome piece of equipment and history.
Actually much more involved than expected!
madness. what an interesting video
Madness indeed! Worth it though.
Or maybe not. 😂
@@AlexBallMusic having just finished watching it was indeed worth it.
@@thedoc1210 Thank you!
never heard that mello sound so beautiful
Great video (as always!)
I have a MC-8 and from time to time I used it just for fun but it takes a little more time than on the MC-4 ;)
Gorgeous and fun performance! Many tx
Outstanding video Alex ..As a "programmer" from the 90s (Ultravox and Yamaha R&D ) ..so much of what you said resonated .. We have so much to thank Dave Smith ..Bowen et.al.for with MIDI .. I used a equally hideous JSQ60 back in the day .. Still use the Ensoniq sequencers to this day for quick composition...as...there's something about DAWless which remains fun.
I think you should approach Netflix to make a feature length movie on Synthesisers ..Your overviews of ARP..Roland ..Sequential etc..featuring people like Dave Smith .. John Bowen ..I feel..with your style ..could become the "Last Man on the Moon" (amazing documentary on Gene Cernan) of Synths
Keep them coming ..
This reminds me of typing in games from ‘Your Sinclair’ into my ZX81. Back then, A child had all the time in the world.
I love watching you work.... your a master of your craft! brAp On!
Love that intro jam at the very beginning! 🔥Nice to see Chris Carter and Hard Corps!
This video gets a like simply because of the complexity of creating music. This definitely brings back memories. It makes you appreciate even simple apps today, like GarageBand.
Thank you. Yes, even kids can sequence nowadays, back then it was quite the science project!
Did not know about your channel. Very interesting with great musical culture. Merci monsieur.
Cheers Julien.
Such a great vid Alex! Brilliant! 😉
Thanks again!
Great stuff.
Looking forward to seeing the BBC Computer episode.
My first attempt in electronic music sequencing was in the C64, in 1984. So painful I never got it to work really. But then I got the Atari and all sorted out pretty nice : )
We had a BBC computer! We had a thing called an Acorn before that too (or perhaps my dad borrowed it from his computer loving friend).
I remember loading the most basic programs imaginable from cassette. The BBC floppy drive seemed like space travel by comparison.
Would be fun to see one of those again. I can even remember one command: *replay
@@AlexBallMusic How about that!
Hope you'll get hands on one some day.
The only command I remember on the C64 is ‘run’. But wouldn't surprise me if I remember that wrong?
So cool to look at - yet so painful to use. But of course I'm looking at it from today's perspective. Back then it was probably fun and awe-inspiring. (love that VFD). I want one badly, yet I want it nowhere near me at the same time.
This was gorgeous and I'm never complaining about my DAW again.
Fantastic Overview! Thank You! 👏
Cheers!
this is absolutely incredible
Video for Front 242 "Operating Tracks" has a nice shot of a working MC-4
Fascinating stuff. I will never complain about Ableton again. :) I started with trackers so I have done my share of manual inputting, but this is next level.
That NIN/funky style was new. Great content.
thanks Alex, your video just confirms the chance we have to live right now with faster (and more powerful) tools :D but that was fun anyway with sequencers like the MC-4, back in the days or still now for long hours of preparation: so geeky!
Definitely a fun experience going back to this way of working. I have newfound appreciation of Cubase 11!
😄
Awesome video!
Brilliant! Thanks for the cool video. Actually i bought one of Vince Clarkes MC-4´s when he moved to the US and he closed his studio in the UK on ebay.
The fact about the Rosanna solo destroyed me hahaha. The hours I spent trying to nail that part! I wish I knew I was battling a computer...
😂
:D Hah, that looked painfull.
We have came far from this.
Top notch video again Alex!
Super cool Alex.
The MC4 is brilliant. That and a CSQ600 make a powerful system, even today. Great video, as always 👍
Do you still have your MC-4?
@@AlexBallMusic I do. It's not something I use all the time, but when I do I realise it has to stay!
great job, alex!
So cool. Thanks.
Didn't know the Toto bit. Very informative, excellent.
Cheers. Yes, was interested to find that out myself.